Excerpt from the book Sports the Olympics Forgot This book describes 40 sports that ought to be played but aren’t, because I made them up.

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Torres proposed that a series of races should take place in the week after the ocean-going yacht Race had finished around Hobart and that these races should commence in January 1972. In this year all the races were over 1 mile and initially comprised only teams of four propelling canoes and kayaks with cricket bats and surfboards with Table Tennis Bats. Some additional distances were added in 1973 both for the sprinters (1000 yards) and for the endurance athletes (2 miles).

In 1974 wicket-keeping glove canoeing over 1 mile was added as a guest event and pelota canoe paddling over 1000 yards too. Two years later baseball mitt canoeing was added as well as kayaking over two miles using Table Tennis bats, which is even now regarded as the hardest event. In the 1980s single and doubles versions of all the events were gradually increased in number.